In this study, Joseph McCarney aims to break away from contemporary Marxist critical attitudes to reinstate the coherence and continuity of classical Marxism. He argues that the character of traditional Marxist thought on Marxist ideology is now generally misconceived. The author claims that this misconception stems from a failure to apprehend the nature of Marx's own position and that of major figures of classical Marxism such as Engels, Lenin, and the young Lukacs. Drawing on the work of Gramsci, Althusser and Poulantzas, as well as representative contributions to the more recent debates, McCarney traces the roots of this dislocation in modern Marxist ideology. This study goes back to the origins of Marxist thought and offers the conception of Marxist ideology as thought which serves class interest.